Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  oi  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


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in  2013 

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PONTCHARTRAINIA 


Coordinated  with  the 
Birth    of  Detroit 

J  brief  and  interesting 
historical  sketch  of  that 
ill u s t rio us  Soldi e r- Explorer 

Antoine  di  l  a  Mothe  Cadillac 

together  with  the  recital  of 
the  difficulties  encountered 
by  the  founder  of  Detroit 
in  his  successful  attempt  to 
establish  the  city  of  the  Straits 

By 

Charles  S.  Hathaway 


Detroit 

Issued  by  The  Hotel  Pontchartrain 


PONTCHAKTRAIN 
HOTEL  COMPANY 
DETROIT  USA 


h  T 


VVV        PONTC  H ARTRAINI A 

Coordinated     witL     t  L  e     Birth     of  Detroit 

By  Charles  S.  Hathaway 

For  centuries  and  including  the  first  three  decades  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  ''The  Land  of  the  Neutrals"  was  a  territory 
well  known  to  the  aborigines  of  North  America.  In  this  district 
the  relentlessly  vindictive  Iroquois  Indians  of  Central  New  York 
State,  could  meet  and  mingle  in  peace  with  their  perpetual  foes, 
the  Algonquins  of  the  Tadousac  and  Quebec  countries,  the  Hurons 
of  the  Ottawa  River  section,  the  Pottawattomies  and  Miamis  of  the 
Michigan  and  Indiana  neighborhoods,  the  Illinois,  Sacs,  Foxes  and 
all  tl  e  other  tribes  west  and  north  of  the  Great  Lakes  region. 

This  "Land  of  the  Neutrals"  was  embodied  in  what  is  now 
known  as  the  Ontario  peninsula,  bounded  by  the  lakes  Ontario, 
Erie  and  Huron,  the  rivers  Detroit  and  St.  Clair,  the  lake  St.  Clair 
and  the  Georgian  Bay. 

This  territory  was  inhabited  by  many  tribes  of  Indians,  who, 
with  an  agricultural  bent  and  as  shrewd,  industrious  and  enterprising 
hunters  and  trappers,  had  voluntarily  sequestered  themselves  to 
follow  and  maintain  the  ways  of  peace.  Incidentally  they  were 
successful  as  traders,  acting  as  "middle  men"  between  the  two 
great  nations,  the  Algonquins  and  the  Iroquois. 

Not  until  the  arrival  of  an  exploring  expedition  headed  by 
Samuel  Champlain  in  1615,  had  white  men  visited  the  "Land  of 
the  Neutrals." 


As  a  missionary  priest  he  had  gone  on  ahead 
of  Champlain  and  his  companions,  traversing  the 
weird  Ottawa  river  route  with  its  thirty  portages, 
from  the  river  St.  Lawrence  to  Georgian  Bay. 
Thence,  from  the  mouth  of  the  French  river,  he 
traveled  south  along  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
great  bay  to  its  smaller  inset  at  the  northern 
boundary  of  what  is  now  known  as  Simcoe 
County,  Ontario. 


First  among  these  white  men  to  look  upon 
the  waters  of  Georgian  Bay  and  its  greater 
source,  Lake  Huron,  was  the  Rev.  Fr.  Joseph  Le 
Caron,  a  member  of  the  Recollet  branch  of  the 
Franciscan  Brotherhood. 


Father  Le  Caron 
Establishing  Missions 


Here  he  was 


overtaken,  very  shortly,  by  Champlain  and  his 


companions.  At  this  point,  also,  he  found  a  long-used  canoe  route 
leading  60  or  more  miles  inland  to  the  south  and  into  the  very 
heart  of  the  "Land  of  the  Neutrals/' 

Isolated  in  a  section  far  away  from  the  ages  old  war  paths  of 
the  Iroquois  and  the  Algonquins,  leading  north  and  south,  he  found 
several  well  built  villages,  surrounded  by  cultivated  fields.  He 
found  the  Neutrals  an  intelligent,  industrious  people.  They  were 
amicable,  energetic  and  treated  their  white  visitor  kindly.  It  was 
an  ideal  opening  for  missionary  work. 

Accordingly,  Father  Le  Caron  began  the  establishing  of  mis- 
sions— the  first  stations  of  that  character  successfully  located  in 
the  Great  Lakes  region. 

During  the  summer  of  1616  Father  Le  Caron  returned  to 
France.  The  reports  he  submitted  to  his  superiors  were  largely 
responsible  for  the  coming  to  Canada  during  the  next  decade,  of  a 
score  or  more  of  missionary  priests — Franciscans  and  Jesuits. 

Bearing  in  mind  that  this  entire  record  was  made  nearly 
three  generations  before  any  settlement  at  Detroit  was  made  by 


Europeans,  it  is  offered  in  the  belief  that  it  will  add  zest  to  the 
story  of  the  founding  of  Detroit  and  the  part  taken  therein  by 
the  two  Counts  de  Pontchartrain. 

Eighteen  years  before  the  birth  of  Antoine  de  la  Mothe 
Cadillac,  a  boy  baby  was  born  in  Paris.  And  in  1661*  this  young- 
ster had  so  progressed  that  he  was  admitted  as  a  member  of  the 
Parliament  of  Paris.  In  1677  this  man,  known  as  Louis  Phely- 
peaux,  Count  de  Pontchartrain,  was  made  chief  president  of  the 
Parliament  of  Brittany,  and  he  administered  the  affairs  of  that 
province  with  great  success.  In  1687  he  became  Intendant  of 
Finance  for  the  whole  kingdom  of  France.  Upon  the  death  of 
M.  Seignelay,  son  of  the  eminent  Colbert,  in  1690,  the  Count  de 
Pontchartrain  succeeded  him  as  Secretary  of  State.  This  office 
he  held  with  credit  to  himself  and  profit  for  his  king  until  1699, 
when  he  was  made  Chancellor  of  France.  He  was  a  man  of  great 
ability,  and  in  his  official  life  displayed  patriotic  zeal  and  devotion, 
strict  justice  and  unbending  integrity.  He  was  fond  of  letters  and 
the  patron  of  authors. t 

In  the  various  official  capacities  named  the  Count  de  Pont- 
chartrain had  an  exceptional  opportunity  for  becoming  acquainted 
with  French  Colonial  affairs  in  Canada.  He  knew  accurately,  as 
Intendant  of  Finance,  as  to  the  contentions  between  his  government 
and  the  trading  companies  in  Canada.  He  was  well  informed  as  to 
the  explorations  by  La  Salle,  Joliet,  Marquette, 
Hennepin,  Tonty,  Iberville,  Duluth  and  all  the  rest 
of  those  pioneer  searchers  and  wanderers. 

As  a  member  of  the  Court  at  Versailles  he  must 
have  been  informed  as  to  the  military  schools  at 
Paris  in  1676,  when  the  founder  of 
Detroit  became  a  cadet  in  the  army 
of  France.   Still  more  likely  he  was 

*Tanguay  gives  this  year  as  the  one  during 
which  Cadillac  was  born, 
tjesuit  Relations,  Vol.  LXVII,  p.  343. 


Father  Li  Caron 

Making  a  Portage 


apt  to  have  had  knowledge  in  1677,  that  young  Antoine  de  la  Mothe 
Cadillac  had  been  appointed  a  lieutenant  in  the  regiment  of 
Clairembault.  Doubtless,  too,  the  elder  Count  de  Pontchartrain 
had  cognizance  of  Cadillac's  trial  by  court  martial,  at  Quebec  in 
168G;  as,  also,  he  must  have  had  official  knowledge  of  the  land 
grant  to  Cadillac,  in  1689,  of  the  island  of  Mt.  Desert  and  an  entire 
six  miles  square  on  the  mainland  east  of  and  abreast  of  Mt.  Desert. 

All  of  these  incidents  in  the  early  life  of  Cadillac,  suggest,  at 
least,  reasons  why  the  elder  Count  Pontchartrain,  together  with 
his  son,  Jerome,  figured  so  pronouncedly,  in  after  years,  as  steadfast 
admirers  and  influential  friends  of  the  founder  of  Fort  Pontchar- 
train— the  original  name  bestowed  upon  the  location  now  known 
as  Detroit. 

Cadillac  not  only  established  the  name  of  Fort  Pontchartrain 
upon  the  settlement  he  made  here  in  1701,  but  he  continued  the 
application  and  use  of  that  name  all  through  the  nine  years  (1701- 
10)  he  remained  here  as  commandant.  In  all  of  his  memorials  to 
Louis  XIV.  and  to  the  governors  of  Canada,  in  all  reports  he  sub- 
mitted and  in  all  of  his  correspondence,*  while  in  charge  of  affairs 
at  this  point,  he  maintained  the  use  of  the  title,  "Fort  Pontchar- 
train." More  than  that,  he  protested  the  use, 
by  some  others — mainly  his  civil,  military  and 
religious  opponents — of  the  name  "Detroit." 

In  the  year  1690,  M.  Jerome  Phelypeaux, 
Count  de  Pontchartrain,  the  younger,  was  made 

*See  "Cadillac  Papers,"  Michigan  Pioneer  Collection, 
Vol.  33;  also  Sheldon's  "Early  History  of  Michigan." 

In  1836,  the  late  Gen.  Lewis  Cass  caused  copies  to  be 
made  of  these  papers,  while  he  was  U.  S.  Minister  to 
France.  These  were  used  in  the  history  by  Mr.  Sheldon. 
About  a  decade  ago,  Mr.  C.  M.  Burton,  Detroit's 
.  eminent  historiographer,  caused  translations  of  these 
papers  to  be  made  in  Paris.  More  complete  and  more 
accurate  than  the  Cass  copies,  they  were  published  in  the 
Michigan  Pioneer  Collection. 


Antoine  de  la 

Moihe  Cadillac 


Minister  of  Marine  of  France.  In  this  capacity,  he  had  absolute 
authority  over  all  military  affairs  in  French  Colonial  possessions. 

As  it  appears  today,  it  seems  strangely  coincidental  that  the 
first  military  and  naval  venture  to  confront  Count  de  Pontchartrain, 
the  new  Minister  of  Marine,  came  as  a  complete  failure.  Also  that 
the  disappointment  involved  Sieur  de  la  Mothe  Cadillac. 

In  1689  Governor  Callieres  of  Montreal,  while  in  Paris,  laid  a 
plan  for  the  capture  of  New  York,  before  Jean  Baptiste  Colbert, 
Marquis  of  Seignelay,  who  was  the  Minister  of  Marine.  This  plan 
was  referred  to  and  approved  by  the  King.  Count  de  Frontenac 
had  just  been  reappointed  to  act,  for  the  second  time,  as  governor 
of  Canada. 

Callieres'  plan  involved  the  sending  of  two  well-manned  battle- 
ships to  New  York  late  in  the  summer  of  1689,  there  to  await  the 
coming  of  a  land  force  under  Callieres — via  Lake  Champlain  and 
the  Hudson  river — and  the  two  forces,  military  and  naval,  were  to 
attack  New  York  simultaneously. 

Rear  Admiral  Caffiniere  sailed  for  the  mouth  of  the  river  St. 
Lawrence,  in  command  of  two  ships,  the  Le  Fourgon  and  U Embuscade, 
in  August,  1689.  With  him  sailed  Count  de  Frontenac,  who  was 
returning  to  resume  his  old  post  as  governor  of  Canada.  They 
arrived  at  Chedabouctou,  September  12. 


Cadillac's  FVije  and 

Children  Captured 


Here  Frontenacwas  transferred  to 
the  ship  St,  Francis  Xavier  and  sailed 
up  the  river  for  Quebec.  Then 
Admiral  Caffiniere  steered  for  Port 
Royal  (Annapolis,  Nova  Scotia)  in 
accord  with  orders  from  M.  Seignelay. 
The  Rear  Admiral  had  never  visited  New  York 
and  the  Minister  of  Marine  deemed  it  wise  to  obtain 
a  person  well  acquainted  with  the  sailing  courses, 
headlands  and  harbors  along  the  New  England  coast, 
to  act  as  pilot  of  the  expedition. 

Sieur  Cadillac  had  been  married  at  Quebec,  June 
25,  1687,  to  Mile.  Marie  Therese  Guyon.  With  his 
wife  he  had  moved  to  Annapolis.  With  that  port  as  his  home  he  had 
put  in  two  or  three  years,  as  an  associate  of  Francois  Guyon  of 
Beauport,  an  uncle  of  his  bride  and  a  privateer — a  quasi  member  of 
the  French  naval  service.  In  this  capacity  Cadillac  had  frequently 
sailed  the  entire  American  coast  from  Anticosti  Island  to  Cape  May 
and  Delaware  Bay.  He  knew  the  shore  currents,  the  soundings, 
the  dangerous  shoals  and  headlands.  He  had  visited  New  York 
and  Boston,  made  sketches  of  their  plans  and  fortifications. 

Accordingly  Cadillac  had  been  recommended  to  Admiral 
Caffiniere,  to  act  as  pilot  in  approaching  New  York  harbor.  Hence 
the  Admiral  sailed  to  Port  Poyal,  where  he  engaged  Cadillac  as  pilot. 

Together  they  sailed  to  New  York  Bay.  There  they  waited 
patiently  for  news  from  the  military  force  expected  overland.  It 
did  not  come.  The  season  was  late  and  the  early  presence  of 
exceptionally  cold  weather  caused  Caffiniere  to  "up  anchor  and 
away"  for  France.    Cadillac  accompanied  him. 

Meanwhile  M.  Seignelay  had  died.  When  Admiral  Caffiniere 
and  Sieur  Cadillac  reached  Paris,  during  the  first  week  in  the  year 
1690,  they  were  required  to  report  to  Count  Louis  Pontchartrain, 
who  had  succeeded  the  late  M.  Seignelay  as  Secretary  of  State. 


Also  they  reported  to  Count  Jerome  Pont  chart  rain,  who,  through 
his  fathers  influence,  had  been  made  Minister  of  Marine. 

Cadillac  landed  at  Rocheford  on  the  29th  of  December,  1689, 
and  accompanying  Admiral  Cafliniere,  proceeded  directly  to  Paris. 
During  the  next  seven  months  he  was  frequently  invited  to  appear 
before  the  Court  at  Versailles.  He  it  was  upon  whom  Count  de 
Pontchartrain  and  his  admiral  depended  for  accurate  facts  and 
enlightenment  as  to  the  military  resources  and  conditions  in  New 
England.  He  it  was,  who  was  able  to  depict,  clearly,  the  difficulties 
to  be  encountered  in  attempting  an  overland  march  from  Quebec 
to  New  York. 

During  this  stay  in  Paris,  Annapolis  had  been  captured  by  the 
English  Admiral,  Phipps.  Cadillac's  wife  and  children  had  been 
captured  and  taken  as  prisoners  to  Boston  and  his  house  and  its 
contents  had  been  destroyed. 

On  the  3rd  of  November,  1690,  the  elder  Count  de  Pontchar- 
train— as  Cadillac  was  about  to  sail  for  Canada — addressed  a  note 
to  Count  Frontenac,  the  governor,  as  follows: 

"Sieur  de  la  Mothe  Cadillac,  a  gentleman  of  Acadia,  having 
been  ordered  to  embark  for  the  service  of  the  King,  on  the 
Embuscade,  which  vessel  had  brought  him  to  France,  His  Majesty 
being  informed  that  during  his  absence  his  habitation  was  ruined — 
hopes  that  Frontenac,  the  new  governor  of  Canada,  will  find  it  con- 
venient to  give  him  such  employment  as  he  may 
find  proper  for  his  services,  and  that  he  will  assist 
him  as  he  can." 

And  so  Cadillac  left  Old  France,  leaving  a 
new  but  firm  friend  in  Count  de  Pontchartrain, 
Secretary  of  State,  to  return  to  New  France 
and  an  old  and  well  beloved  friend  in  Count 
de  Frontenac,  Governor  of  Canada. 

But  Count  de  Pontchartrain  and  his 
King  clung  to  the  project  of  subduing  New 


Lt  Fo"»rgon  and 


England,  and  in  April,  1692,  Louis  XIV.  directed  Cadillac  to  come 
to  Paris  and  furnish  information  on  the  subject  because,  as  the 
order  set  forth,  "he  is  the  best  instructed  on  these  points" — that 
is  to  say  as  to  the  means  of  defense  at  Boston  and  New  York  and 
the  most  expeditious  and  certain  methods  for  overcoming  the  same. 

Cadillac  responded  to  the  call  and  submitted  an  exhaustive 
report  on  the  subject  to  Count  Pontchartrain.*  In  this  report  he 
advised  the  construction  of  light  draft  vessels  to  repel  invaders 
who  might  attempt  to  gain  control  of  the  river  St.  Lawrence. 

The  King  directed  the  secret  construction  of  such  a  fleet  and 
that  command  of  the  same  should  be  given  to  Cadillac.  The  future 
founder  of  Fort  Pontchartrain  returned  to  Canada  but  the  expected 
invasion  did  not  materialize.  The  fleet  was  not  built.  In  1693,  on 
the  recommendation  of  Count  de  Frontenac,  approved  by  Count  de 
Pontchartrain,  the  King  bestowed  a  donation  of  1,500  livres  upon 
Cadillac,  in  recognition  of  his  loyalty  and  valuable  services.  Next, 
in  rapid  succession,  he  was,  in  1694,  created  an  ensign  of  the  navy 
and  captain  of  troops  because,  as  Governor  Frontenac  expressed  it, 
Cadillac  "was  a  man  of  distinction,  full  of  valor  and  capable." 

Almost  immediately,  also,  he  was  made  commandant  at  Macki- 
nac, where  he  served  with  credit  to  himself,  for  four  years,  when  he 
asked  to  be  relieved. 

Meanwhile  he  had  conferred  with  both  Frontenac  and  Pont- 
chartrain relative  to  the  establishment  of  a  military  post  and 
permanent  French  colony  on  "The  Strait,"  a  short  distance 
above  Lake  Erie.  The  project  received  the  approval  of  both  the 
Minister  of  Marine  (Count  Pontchartrain)  and  Count  Frontenac, 
Governor  of  Canada. 

Count  Frontenac  did  not  live  to  see  the  carrying  out 
of  his  protege's  projtct,  as  he  died  November  25,  1698. 

♦Mr.  C.  M.  Burton  in  his  "Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Cadillac"  (1895), 
says:  "This  report  is  still  in  the  French  Archives  and 
has  been  printed  in  part  in  the  Maine  Historical 
Collections  (Vol.  VI)  and  in  the  Revue  Canadienne, 
but  I  have  nowhere  seen  a  complete  copy." 


Fort  Mackinac 


He  was  succeeded  by  M.  de  Callieres,  who 
did  not  favor  Cadillac's  proposition. 

Count  de  Pontchartrain,  the  superior 
officer  above  de  Callieres,  remained  steadfast 
in  his  friendship  for  Cadillac  and  approved 
of  the  plan  to  establish  a  fort,  trading  post 
and  colony  on  "The  Strait."  The  result  was 
that  Louis  XIV.,  urged  on  by  de  Pontchar- 
train, issued  a  commission  to  Cadillac, 
authorizing  him  to  carry  out  his  proposed 
enterprise.* 

Thus  it  came  about,  after  eleven  years 
of  intimate,  official  acquaintance  with  Count 
de  Pontchartrain,  the  elder,  and  with  his  son,  that  Cadillac  arrived 
at  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Detroit,  on  the  23rd  of  July,  1701. 
He  was  accompanied  by  50  French  soldiers  and  50  French  civilians 
— farmers,  artisans,  hunters,  coureur  de  bois  and  borgemen.  They 
brought  with  them  supplies  for  three  months. 

Clearly  Louis  XIV.,  his  ministers,  the  two  Counts  Pontchartrain 
and  Count  Frontenac,  royal  representative  in  Canada,  were  pri- 
marily and  chiefly  responsible  for  Cadillac's  success.  But  the 
founder  of  Detroit  was  a  man  of  great  ability.  The  eminent  French 
archivist,  M.  Margry,  speaking  of  Cadillac,  says  he  had  the  best 
of  instruction,  clear  ideas  concerning  politics,  military  affairs, 
colonization  and  the  royal  power  in  its  relations  with  the  church, 
and  displayed  excellent  ability  in  his  relations  with  the  Indians. 

What  more  natural,  in  the  light  of  foregoing  facts,  than  was 
Cadillac's  choice  of  the  name  of  Pontchartrain  as  the  title  of  his 
new  establishment?  What  more  natural  than  was  the  persistence 
with  which  he  adhered  to  the  name  "Fort  Pontchartrain,"  through 
the  nine  years  he  was  commandant  at  that  post? 

*Mr.  C.  M.  Burton  in  his  "Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Cadillac,"  says:  "The  friendship 
that  sprung  up  between  Cadillac  and  the  Minister  Pontchartrain  lasted  a  lifetime, 
and  both  of  the  Pontchartrains  felt  a  thorough  dependence  on  the  reports  they 
received  from  him." 


) ) 


Finally,  was  it  not  a  happy 
thought  which  prompted  the 
bestowal  of  the  name  "Hotel  Pont- 
chartrain" upon  the  largest,  best 
planned,  best  equipped  and  best 
conducted  hotel  in  the  North 
Central  States? 

The  reflection  that  more  than 
two  centuries  were  permitted  to 
elapse  before  any  public  institution 
in  Detroit  was  named  in  memory  of 
the  man,  Count  de  Pontchartrain, 


Secretary  of  State  for  Louis  XIV.,  prompts  the  inquiry:  What  did 
Cadillac  find  at  this  point  upon  his  arrival,  and  why  did  he  land  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  area  where  he  erected  his  "Fort  Pontchartrain"? 

Mr.  C.  M.  Burton,  who  has  gone  more  deeply  into  the  early 
history  of  Detroit  than  any  other  investigator,  locates  "Fort 
Pontchartrain" — a  palisaded  area  of  about  two  acres — as  having 
its  south  boundary  practically  along  the  north  line  of  Jefferson 
Avenue,  its  eastern  boundary  along  the  west  line  of  Griswold  Street, 
its  western  boundary  not  far  west  of  the  present  line  of  Shelby 
Street  and  its  northern  boundary  very  near  to  the  south  line  of 
Larned  Street. 

Possessing  copies  of  all  the  land  conveyances  made  by  Cadillac, 
Mr.  Burton  has  constructed  a  map  of  Detroit  as  it  was  in  1708. 
And  in  order  to  prove  the  accuracy  of  this  map,  he  had  it  traced 
upon  a  city  map  of  the  present  time.  Thus  he  found  lot  lines  still 
serving  as  boundary  lines  of  present  buildings,  coinciding  very 
nearly  with  the  Cadillac  conveyances.* 

(The  location  of  Fort  Pontchartrain  as  above  indicated,  is 
one  square  west  and  two  square^  south  of  the  Hotel  Pontchartrain.) 

At  the  time  of  Cadillac's  coming,  the  river  front  in  its  shore 
line  was  decidedly  different  from  what  it  is  today.  It  was  further 
*C.  M.  Burton's  "Detroit  Under  Cadillac"  (1896),  p.  7. 


to  the  north  from  50  to  200  feet,  along  its  curving  limits,  from  a 
point  about  at  the  foot  of  Rivard  Street,  down  to  the  foot  of  Shelby 
Street.  There  was  a  narrow  beach  along  this  distance  and  then  the 
bank  raised  gradually  until  about  150  feet  from  the  water's  edge 
it  reached  an  elevation  of  about  30  feet  above  water  level. 

At  the  foot  of  Shelby  Street  the  river  bank  turned  rather  sharply 
to  the  northwest  with  sharp  upward  slopes  both  to  the  north  and 
east.  This  turn,  with  the  adjacent  course  of  the  small  and  now 
extinct  River  Savoyard,  formed  a  cove,  which  was,  doubtless,  long 
used  by  the  Indians  as  a  convenient  and  protected  landing  place.* 
Somewhere  in  this  cove — probably  near  the  present  foot  of 
Shelby  Street — Cadillac  made  his  landing. 

That  the  Counts  de  Pontchartrain  and  the  Count  de  Frontenac 
did  not  mislead  their  King,  Louis  XIV.,  by  their  continued  faith  in 
and  support  of  Cadillac,  is  shown  as  follows: 

Within  a  year  from  the  time  of  his  landing,  the  founder  of  our 
city  wrote  to  Count  de  Pontchartrain:  "All  that  I  have  the  honor 
to  state  to  you  has  been  done  in  one  year,  without  its  having  cost 
the  King  a  cent  and  without  costing  the  Company  (organized  in 
Quebec  and  Paris  by  Cadillac  and  on  the  authority  of  the  King) 
more  than  it  ought;  and  in  twelve  months  we 
have  put  ourselves  in  a  position  to  do  without 
provisions  from  Canada  forever — and  all  this 
undertaking  was  carried  out  with  three  months 
provisions  which  I  took  when  I  set  out  from 
Montreal  and  which  were  consumed  in  the  course 

The  present-day  Jefferson  Avenue  slope  to  the  west  and 
the  abrupt  slope  on  Shelby  Street  from  Jefferson  Avenue 
to  Woodbridge  Street,  indicate  in  a  general  way  the 
formation  of  the  old-time  cove. 

When  the  old  Ste.  Anne's  Church,  at  Larned  and  Bates 
Streets  was  built  (1818-28),  the  limestone  of  which  its  walls 
were  made  was  brought  on  barges  from  the  Detroit  River 
up  the  River  Savoyard  to  the  corner  of  Griswold  and 
Congress  Streets. 


Count 

Pontchartrain 


of  the  journey.  This  proves  whether  Detroit  (The  Strait)  is  a 
desirable  or  an  undesirable  country." 

"Besides  this,  nearly  six  thousand  mouths  of  different  tribes 
wintered  here,  as  everyone  knows.  This  is  the  Paradise  of  North 
America."* 

And  today — the  summer  of  1913,  two  hundred  and  twelve 
years  after  the  lily  of  France  was  raised  over  the  palisades  of  Fort 
Pontchartrain,  there  stands  in  Detroit — the  only  memorial  in  the 
city  in  honor  of  the  senior  Count  de  Pontchartrain,  the  great 
French  statesman — the  Hotel  Pontchartrain. 


♦"Cadillac  Papers,"  Michigan  Pioneer  Collection,  Vol.  33. 


HOTEL  PONTCHARTRAIX 


George   H.  Woolley 
\V.  J.  Chittenden,  Jr. 
Managers 


Old  English  Dining  Room 
Louis  XV.  Dining  Room 
Flamingo  R o o m 


Cor  r idor 
Entrance 


Designed,  Engravings,  and  Printed 
Joseph  Mack  Printing  House 
Detroit 


